The shortfall in the availability of Family Planning commodities and consumables accross the primary health facilities in Akwa Ibom State especially those at the rural communities has left much to be worried than desired.
This tends to heighten the health risk of women and girls at the reproductive age.
A visit by our correspondent to some local government areas in the state revealed an increase in maternal mortality rate, unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortion with the attendant poverty rate in those communities.
Data from the Nigeria Demography and Health Survey, (NDHS 2018) showed Akwa Ibom as one of the States with increased rate of teenage pregnancy standing at 12% and with highest rate of abortion among young people of reproductive age.
The data also showed Maternal Mortality Rate – MMR in the State standing at 520/100,000 live births.
Worried by the ugly trend, a family head in Ikot Ebom Itam, Itu local government area of the state, Edem Akpanobong said government should do something urgently to address the situation.
He recounted how they recently lost two mothers of three and four to childbirths respectively and cases of many other teenage girls getting pregnant and dropping out of school.
He said he encourages his people within the reproductive age to take up family planning services to forestall some of the problems highlighted even avoiding having Vesico Virginal Fistula,VVF commonly caused by early childbirth which according to him is emerging.
His words, “yes I’m aware of family planning and I always encourage people to take up the services. We are losing our daughters to childbirth complications and we are not happy about that. Just recently, we lost two women.
“Family planning reduces health risks to women and gives them more control over their reproductive lives. With better health and greater control over their lives, women can take advantage of education, employment and civic opportunities.”
Interaction with some young persons in the communities showed that inadequate FP commodities in the facilities and demand for money from service providers before access hinder them from taking up the service.
At the Primary Health Care Center Ikot Oku Usung, Ukanafun Local Government Area, the situation revealed the existing gaps in the family planning services as the facility lacks various types of FP commodities to enable clients make a choice.
One Abasiofiok who accompanied his wife for antenatal visit at the facility expressed willingness for the wife to take up FP service after delivery but expressed dissatisfaction over non-availability of many options that the nurse highlighted.
Also, Abasifreke, a teenager and expectant mother who came for antenatal clinic said she just got to hear about FP services and mooted plan to take up one as she said she was planning to go back to school.
The Officer In Charge and the Family Planning provider at the Health Facility, Mrs. Edimek Emason Akpaitam while speaking said there was great improvement in family planning uptake in the area and attributed to the efforts of The Challenged Initiative (TCI) creating awareness and outreach mobilisation in communities around the health facility and in the Local Government Area at large.
She said due to the prevailing economic situation, many people in Ukanafun are taking up FP services but regretted the inadequate commodities and consumables saying that the issue should be addressed urgently to enable more women embrace the service.
At the Primary Health Care Operational Base, Mkpat
Enin Local Government Area of the state, Mrs Asindi Joseph, a mother of five who just obtained implanon method at the PHC, recalled that after counseling, she chose the method which has been perfectly working for her.
“It was my husband that brought the idea of the family
planning and now I’m enjoying it because I feel stronger, healthier and living well. It is not the number of children that you have but how you are able to train them would give you satisfaction in life. It is the
best decision to take, it enhances child spacing, allows planning and enables me, the wife to contribute to the family upkeep,” she added.
However, there are vulnerable and mentally deranged women roaming round the streets of Uyo, pregnant who may still need FP services. One of them in her early thirties who traverses around Wellington Bassey way, Ibom plaza and environs has fallen prey to heartless men who impregnate her almost on a yearly basis and the whereabouts of the babies unknown.
Another mentally unstable lady, popularly known as Eka-Udo in Uyo, but lives with her family who gave birth to her third child could not identify the father of all her children. That is to say that men take advantage of her vulnerability and have canal knowledge of her. Though it was gathered from her family members that she was later taken to PHC to access family planning.
Meanwhile, The Challenged Initiative, TCI, a donor agency for FP services in Akwa Ibom has described family planning as a reproductive health right for every individual.
The Executive Director of TCI, Dr Taiwo Johnson said every individual regardless of age and status has the autonomy and access to how to plan his or her family advocating that women should be empowered with right information and resources for their choices to reproductive health.
Uchenna Ajike of MSI Nigeria Reproductive Choices said, “we do not believe that FP is only for married couples but right for every human whether they are married or not. Let us not think that when an adolescent wants to access a contraceptive services they are committing a sin. It’s just like their right to access services in the cure of malaria, tuberculosis etc.”
Meanwhile, access to FP services in the state remains a far cry. This could be due to poor sensitization or lack of adequate commodities and consumables in some facilities.
According to FP Cordinator in the State, Mrs Enobong Eshiet, Akwa Ibom has 32 percent of unmet need for family planning.
According to her, “Unmet need means there are women who have need for family planning services but most of them don’t know where to access them. We need all hands to be on deck to ensure these needs are met.”
She said family planning services in Akwa Ibom is highly donor dependent in that most of the commodities available in the health facilities are being provided by donor partners.
The question is, what will be the fate of the clients and the prospective ones if these donor agencies withdraw their supports or exit from the country as some of them had announced? The government, therefore, is required to step into its responsibility to bridge this gap.
The Coordinator had attributed inadequate commodities in FP clinics to lack of funding saying that of all the approvals for FP services in successive budgets of the state, no single release has been made
She disclosed that Akwa Ibom State is yet to make its contribution to the national basket fund as some other states had done saying that such militated against supplies of commodities from the federal government to the state.
Her words, “Family planning services is more of partner dependent, we’ve been having approved budget in the state but no releases, when we found out the gap there, we constituted an advocacy core group and that core group is working out modalities to policy makers so that they see reasons to release funds allocated to family planning services. With these releases we can sustain our programmes.
“We were given a mandate in 2022 for states to start procuring their FP commodities because the national basket was no longer rich as it used to as partners were withdrawing. Akwa Ibom State is yet to contribute to the basket and I hope before the year runs out something will be done so that if we request for instance 100 commodities they will give us but now when you request for 100 jadelles we may get 40. The quantity order shows what the state needs and the quantity supplied shows what the FG can give. They have to ration to other states but if we contribute, we will have in full.”
